develop consensus standards for use by TNI's programs. This group has a support role in assisting other programs with activities such as guidance and standards interpretation.
fosters the generation of data of known and documented quality is through the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, or NELAP. The purpose of this program is to establish and implement a program for the accreditation of environmental laboratories.
is to establish and maintain a national PT program to support TNI’s National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, and other activities.
Field Activities Program (NEFAP) Executive Committee is to establish and implement an accreditation program for field sampling and measurement organizations (FSMOs).
Audit Sample Program is to develop consensus standards for the manufacture and analysis of audit samples for source emission testing.
on a variety of topics of interest to the environmental measurement community. TNI also hosts two regularly scheduled meetings per year, typically in January and August. Both are a week long and involve open meetings of TNI committees as well as training courses and other special sessions.Re-Aligning TNI Operations
Date Posted: 3-11-2010
When TNI was formed in 2006, the primary focus was to assimilate the operations of the predecessor organizations, the Institute for National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation and the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference. Since that time, TNI’s activities have grown into new areas such as the National Environmental Field Activities Program (NEFAP) and the Stationary Source Audit Sample program. In addition, some existing programs, like the Proficiency Testing program are now working in activities beyond the scope of the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP). All of these changes have indicated a need to revisit the governance and structure of the organization.
Furthermore, there has been some confusion on the use of the term Boards, as in the PT Board and the NELAP Board. As a result of these factors, the TNI Board of Directors has been working on a plan to realign TNI’s program and committee structure to better match actual activities. This plan will ultimately result in a minor change to the TNI bylaws, in Article VI, Section 1, concerning core programs. While some details remain to be finalized, the new structure will have the following elements:
- TNI’s Board of Directors will continue to be responsible for the overall management and direction of TNI’s efforts.
- TNI’s Consensus Standards Development Program, NEFAP, NELAP, and Proficiency Testing Program will each be designated as a Core Program, with an Executive Committee with balanced representation of stakeholder interests managing the program.
- The current NELAP Board will be redefined as a NELAP Accreditation Council, but will continue to be responsible for implementing the laboratory accreditation program.
A draft document posted on the TNI website, The NELAC Institute: Governance and Operation, provides more details about the roles of all TNI groups. Over the next few months, the Policy Committee will use this document to revise the Bylaws of TNI, which will then be adopted by the TNI Board of Directors. The goal is to complete this effort in the May-June timeframe. TNI welcomes input from all members on this effort. Please review the document and provide comments to Jerry Parr at [email protected].